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| | | Cookes Peak - Luna County HP, NM | | | |
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Cookes Peak - Luna County HP, NM
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| Hiking | 7.25 Miles |
2,745 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.25 Miles | 5 Hrs 16 Mns | | 1.60 mph |
| 2,745 ft AEG | 44 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I wasn't real sure what to expect on this hike, but I decided to give it a shot. Cookes Peak (elevation of 8,408 feet and prominence of 2,568 feet) is an impressive and imposing-looking peak that is a visible landmark that can be seen for miles around.
The dirt road drive was great until you got to the ranch. The BLM bypass of the ranch was a lesser road, and after a half mile I would think that you need a high clearance vehicle. The going got much slower once I got to the 4WD road. I was going 0-2 mph and figured that I could walk faster than that, so I just pulled over and parked after going 0.4 miles or so. Naturally the road improved once I started hiking, and I thought about going back to get my truck; but I decided to leave well enough alone so I continued hiking on the road.
I hiked about 1 mile on the road, and then turned off the road and hiked on an old road bed that headed up a canyon. The road bed turned into a really nice use trail that mostly went alongside a wash. The use trail was generally easy to follow and there were lots of cairns. The trail led out of the canyon up to a ridge, and then followed the ridge to the SE side of Cookes Peak. There was a fun class 2 scramble to get up to the summit. The summit is a nice area with great views, so it was nice to hang out there for a bit while having lunch.
I descended that same way that I came up.
This turned out to be a great hike that was easier than I thought that it might be. There was a good trail the whole way, and the peak was visible the entire time. Once on the ridgeline, the route to take up was quite apparent when viewing it from a distance. The scramble up was fun and to me was not sketchy at all.
If I lived in the area I would do this hike at least once a year. This was the first time since October that I had been over 8,000 feet, and it was nice to not feel like a flatlander! |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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